"According to Agent, he has a recently renewed passport, and he wrote to Syncerror and Zero4 repeatedly about an invitation, but got only one response quite recently from Zero4, asking for details what were already sent.

He didn't book an interview at the US embassy because he didn't know if he's going, and with current situation booking is almost impossible. So his only chance now is some help from ESL and/or id. Which is unlikely. To add to all of that, Agent's main source of income (sports betting) is quite unstable and can be a hurdle during the interview.

Also, side story of Agent and his LAN attendance (as told by him on his streams, with my opinions and if I'm remembering all that correctly). Some time around 2010-2011 he wanted to git gud at quake and win something. He was training constantly and already had some online and LAN top placements. So at some point he had a deal with M5 gaming organisation that they will support him going at Quakecon 2011. He got a foreign travel passport and was ready to go, placing a lot of effort in training. But less than month before the event M5 suddenly kicked him out, taking Cooller instead. M5 managers just said something like "Sorry, Cooller is a bigger name than you". That was the tilt moment for Agent, and he doesn't get anything e-sports related seriously since then. Also he says that all those rumours about him not having a foreign travel passport are untrue. Time checks out, btw, he could get a 5-year travel passport in 2011 and he could renew it with a 10-year travel passport in 2016 or 2017.

Some may dislike Agent, but there is unfortunately a big possibility that he will be unable to participate at Quakecon. He has quite a personality, he's objectively one of the top contender, he can be a great drama generator, and without him Quakecon will definitely be more dull, leaving us, viewers, at a loss."

Didn't take it too serious? how so?
I mean, considering he's one of the few players who still played QL consistently and then grinded QC like crazy, it's weird to hear that he doesn't take the game seriously / isn't taken seriously.

Dunno what was the deal with the 50 tourney but maybe he just wanted a tourney and he had little money to offer? why did his contribution upset people?

Ah, I see. I watched some of those finals (the full ones I guess), seemed like he tried but lost fairly to a superior Evil. Agent did win once, iirc. Out of the very few players left (him, evil and base, essentially), it's natural to "get stuck" behind evil, as frustrating as it may be. But even at this standstill they really did keep the tourney relevant.

QC kinda reshuffled the cards so it could be his break. He was the only one that seemed to give Cypher a proper fight (until Cooller surprised at the LAN last week).

little did you know that z4 informed Agent around a week ago, that his docs, which he sent a few months ago already, long before all this mess, were lost and Agent has to restart all the process of getting in queue for the interview at the embassy, which is impossible to do in time right now

As much as Agent is a bellend, I would also like to see him at Quakecon, I did hear he didnt even have a passport at all but if that's changed it's good news.

Agent has been an online hero for a while I think he would like to prove that he is decent on LAN. At the end of the day if you want to prove you got the big balls in quake you gotta win LAN's. He came 4th at mediamarkt LAN the other week and didn't look as strong as I would have thought.

Don't do the visa stuff yourself, and definitely don't let him fill it out since he can't even post on esreality on his own. Go to an authorized travel agency in spb or moscow who specialize in American visas and have them fill the application out for him. If they have an invitation from id or ESL then it's a special visa type. One of the main things is the US consulate will be looking for strong ties from the applicant to their home country, so it's very important to write something strong in these sections. They're super concerned about not letting in people who are at risk of overstaying their visas.

it's probably a lesser bug, given that the invitation had his passport number.
what's really ridiculous, that after all this procrastination from zero0 the document itself only contains a line like
"this man has won qualifiers"
"this is his name and passport number"
and a hand-written sign.

that's it.

no info on sponsoring the flight and expenses, no info on tickets, no info on the tornament and organization that brings it about, no info on where the invited person will be staying and whatnot...

what do u expect from people at the embassy - to look at printed A4 paper with a couple lines of text on it, which doesn't explain shit and doesn't reveal any significant info to help Agent to at least prove his urgency and big US company backing him up, and say "well, that looks legit, u r good to go"?

I told you guys, in another thread, that z0 doesnt give a fuck about fair competition and organizing for players, following the well-known id's policy.

PS: It's not really an invitation of any sort, it's a joke. A sign of badly cloaked 'fuck off' in-ya-face. You might as well take a roll of toilet paper and have the same result as with this kind of 'invitation' - the embassy staff will just point you outside at once.
Hey - I could write the exact same invitation, any of us could!

And how did they fuck up his surename?
Mayorov is quite different that MaLorov.

This has nothing to do with the organization. It's a manchild (agent) that forgot he needs to get a Visa to travel to an overseas event, that proceeded to then blame the organization for his mistake.

And in cypher and cooller's case, different organizations and games have come throughout the years, but the only constant has been that they always have trouble getting their Visas and have trouble with their teams. After so many times of them failing at this, in Q3 Q4 QL OW you name it, do you think it's the organization's fault this time?

Actually, didn't cypher have Visa issues just a few months ago for an Overwatch event? I mean, really.

It's the players' responsability to get their own Visas; not Zero4's, not id's.

Players don't need a letter from id software to get Visas to travel to participate in a competition. The players know this, as they have travelled to dozens of events before since the year 2000.

This time some players are playing the fool because they just forgot about getting their Visas, and some fans such as yourself started spinning the facts to falsely say somehow it's id's responsability/fault. 90% of players didn't forget and will travel, and didn't hassle the organization.

Yes Zero4 could have done a better job at reacting to the problem, despite having no obligation to help players fix their own mistake, but lets not forget the very problem was caused by the players not getting their own Visas in due time, and that it's their responsability and not id's.

Remember there's been hundreds of big esports tournaments before, in Quake and other games, and what you are saying would be a first.

For example for all previous Quake tournamenta ever players just needed a regular visitors Visa, last year's Quakecon included. Cooller and cypher never needed what you said.

Another example is for this year's Evo there were like 10,000 competitors. Imagine if Evo had to send 10,000 invitations, rofl.

And again, players have known about this for literally decades. Cooller and cypher have done what I said at least 30 times in their combined careers, but now they just forgot to get a visitors Visa. And well agent is an idiot so.

One quick Google search says the parties involved mistook it as a working Visa, which delayed the process. For this reason he did receive the Visa and his passport with it, but it was just too late. Again, a working Visa is not the topic in discussion.https://www.joindota.com/en/news/57307-bulldo...ie-at-risk

In the end I'm asking for somebody to tell me one case in which a Quake player had to get an invitation from id software to get a Visa to attend to Quakecon. As far as I know there's been zero cases so far, and they just go with the simplest of Visas, not as athletes, not as workers but as just mere visitors. I'd appreciate a link as well, instead of insults like the urgayian argues like.

And since we are on it, I'd also like someone to explain me why is that cooller and cypher are the only Quake players that always encounter Visa issues whereas all the rest just doesn't, whether from Russia, Belarus or any other country. We've been hearing this same story for the past 10 years; not the first time with them.

When filing with USCIS, a successful P1 petition must contain the following items:

Evidence of having legally contracted with a major U.S. sports league
A written consultation from an appropriate labor organization
Evidence demonstrating that the athlete meets at least two of the following criteria:
Significant participation in U.S. major sports league in prior seasons
Participation in international competitions with a national team
Significant participation in a prior U.S. college/university season in inter-collegiate competitions
Written statement from a major U.S. sports league or official of the sport's governing body demonstrating the alien's or team's international recognition
Written statement from the sports media or a recognized expert
International ranking provided by internationally recognized sports' organizations
Significant honors/awards in the sport

This USCIS step is prior for Visa esport application, and you get a 5 years visa.
Fuck you shill

Bro, it is very, VERY heavily influencing the chances for visa, here in Moscow US embassy, if you get a proper invitation and an official support from the organizers of the events abroad (what was EXACTLY promised by QWC orgs from the day one).

The EXACT place of stay (addr., days to stay, time of departure from the premises), official letter on covering the expenses, tickets to US and back, proper contacts and valid addresses of said organization, maybe a booklet of some sort to quickly familiarize a completely uaware person - what is QWC and why it is they gather qualified cyber-athletes from all over the world to bout and duel in Texas, namely.

It also heavily depends on travel history of a man, and, as Cooller already said in his recent ivew - z4 knows pretty much all the important details in that matter for every significant player. That is why he was perfectly fit for the job at id - he knows the score and all the shits and giggles of the whole scene from all the way back in the days. He knows that Agent is a fucking chessmate beast at Quake and never ever travelled abroad; he knows that Cypher could've had troubles, considering his last turn-off from the US, he knows that CIS players have the hardest time getting this visa stuff done, especially due to economical and political situation nowadays.

And yet -

none of that above work was provided by z4 or whoever else took responsibility on doing that work. If you want a real impression on what Agent received instead, this guy did it pretty close -

The only sgnificant difference here is the sign - Agent's invite was signed by Willits, if I remember correctly from his stream.

I may repeat, for those who have troubles with understanding things going on at US embassy - proper invitation and all the supportive info is extremely important, and also has to be taken into processing in time. By current situation - it is NOT proper in any sense, and also received from id just couple of days ago, despite being requested more than two months back.

Your post has nothing to do with what I said. I'm talking about requirements, and the invitation is not one.

Cooller, cypher, any Quake player from overseas, etc., have never, ever received an invitation from id software to travel to Quakecon, Dreamhack, ESL or any other event. Not once, and all players combined have traveled thousands of times.

What happened is that agent is an idiot that forgot about getting a Visa, and cooller and cypher since the early 2000s have run into trouble getting Visas so it's not really the new managers' fault but theirs.

Russia is not even the problem. Cooller is the only Quake player from Russia that has run into problems getting Visas, while the rest just do not have troubles. So, have you thought maybe cooller is the problem?

And you will see it in this tournament too. 90% of the players didn't have issues getting their Visas for this event, so maybe Zero4's job is not the problem?

And again, only mere couple months ago cypher run into issues getting a Visa to play Overwatch. Is that zero4's fault too?

you somehow missing the point -
invitation and everything supportive IS a requirement for any common sense application at the embassy. going there without it and getting 99,99% refusal outcome is not an option, as you fall into a 'cool-down' state, meaning that within a period from a couple of months to a year you are recorded as a person to not be dealt with at all.

an 'idiot' is the one who comes to us embassy without any proper invites and proofs of his time of stay and place of stay from the accepting side abroad.

if invites were not important - noone would care about them, in the first place. do you have troubles with understanding that?

advocate z4 all you want, my little microman, but Agent at first was PROMISED to have an invite, he sent his docs, then he was asking for two moths - how's it going and where is the paper, then he finally was informed that his docs are lost, then he contacted z4 again and sent his docs the second time, then z4 said 'wait a bit until I return to US - the internets in UK are bad for sending letters' or smth like that... (bytes and copper in the UK UTPcat.5e cables are probably not American enough for the invitation letter to have power of persuation...)

u dig, or still living in the land of your dreams, where Cooller is the only one who had problems with visas?

I'm not against zero4 in any sense, he seem to be a good guy, - I'm against a job being done bad and the whole idsoft ways of organizing things, which tend to care about players and good games in the last place

Cooller, cypher, any Quake player from overseas, etc., have never, ever received an invitation from id software to travel to Quakecon, Dreamhack, ESL or any other event. Not once, and all players combined have traveled thousands of times.

How can all this happen? How can it be that id does not seem to be sufficiently supporting these players to get their visas... do they maybe want rapha to take it, so that they can build him up as the next Fatal1ty, someone they can use well for advertising QC in the US... I am really sorry for the players... it is so unfair that these players can probably not go... some of them are struggling really hard financially, coming from countries where 300€ is the average income... and these players have to suffer now after doing everything that is in their power... can't go to QuakeCon and potentially change their lives with that money after training for months... just because id couldn't send them their letters in time... you don't have to like the players, but to anyone who truely loves the game, fair competition and who is not walking ignorant through this world, this is just frustrating. Imagine a soccer world cup without Brazil, Germany, Spain, Italy and Argentina.